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Errata and Frequently Asked Questions

for Munchkin, Unnatural Axe, Star Munchkin,
and Munchkin Fu
Updated August 26, 2003

The following errata from the first printing of Munchkin were corrected in the
second-printing cards:

The Bad Stuff on the Floating Nose card should end with "Lose 3
Levels."
Mr. Bones should be Undead.
The Swiss Army Polearm should say "2 Hands."

Here's what the Giant Skunk says in the second printing of Unnatural Axe:
Your "friends" won't get within 20 yards while you fight the Giant Skunk.
They may not help you, backstab you, or use any cards either for or against you
- except for Wandering Monsters and monster enhancers.
Bad Stuff: Sprayed! Nobody will help you in a fight until you get rid of all
clothing and armor now in your possession. Their Gold Piece value is halved.

Munchkin Fu errata:

The cards Baby Powder and Spirit Mirror should both have "Usable once
only."added to the end of their descriptions.

Important Clarification #1: When You Can Steal

Stealing, for the thief, works like trading. A thief can attempt theft at any time
except during a combat . . . and, once a monster card is revealed, combat has
begun. So the thief can't steal while he is in combat, nor can he steal from
someone during their combat.

Important Clarification #2: Reaching Level 10

The general rule is that you may not reach Level 10 except by killing a
monster. If you are at Level 9 and something else happens that would normally
let you go up a level . . . you don't. You stay at Level 9.
BUT . . . the Divine Intervention card specifically overrules this. The card itself

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says that it can end the game.

Frequently Asked Questions

These are the ones that have come up repeatedly since Munchkin was released.
The newest printing of the rules has been modified slightly to answer some of
these questions, too. Are we unhappy that so many picky little questions have
come up? NO! It proves that you're all getting into the spirit of the game.

The Generic Questions

On The Table vs. In Hand
Those Darn Kneepads
Thieves and Stealing
Divine Intervention
Other Race and Class Questions
Curses
Potions and Notions
Combat Complexities
Et Cetera
And The Grand Champion Munchkinly Question . . .
Star Munchkin

Got a question that doesn't appear here? Try the Munchkin Adventurers Guild!

The Generic Questions

Q. The rules say one thing. This card says another. What do I do?
A. As with most card games, the whole point of many of the cards is to bend
the rules. So cards override rules.

Q. Can yadda-yadda be used to do yadda-yadda? It isn't in the rules or on the

card, but it seems logical.
A. If it's not in the rules, it doesn't matter how logical it is, unless you can talk
the other players into it. And if you can, go for it!

Q. Is yadda-yadda the same as yadda-yadda?

A. Not unless they have the same name. See above . . . Weapons are not the
same as armor. "Stomps you flat" is not the same as "kills you." And so on.

On The Table vs. In Hand

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Q. If you have to lose items, do you lose the ones from your hand, or just those
on the table?
A. Always, always, only those on the table. Those are the only items you have;
while they are in your hand, they're not carried items yet. If you are meant to
lose cards from your hand, this will be specified.

Those Darn Kneepads

Q. If I make someone help me with the Kneepads of Allure, can they then
backstab me, play cards against me, etc., so we both have to run away?
A. You bet.

Q. I hate the Kneepads of Allure. I think they unbalance the game. What should
I do?
A. There are several possibilities.

Steal the Kneepads cards out of all your friends' games and EAT them. If
they catch you, lie.
Agree beforehand to play without it, if everybody else hates the card too.
Same with any card you don't like.
If the owner of the Kneepads takes too much advantage, just pick
mercilessly on him. Backstab him in every attack. Throw potions at him.
Eat his food while he's out of the room. You get the idea. Nobody can
stand against all the other players united.

Thieves and Stealing

Q. How often can a thief steal?

A. As long as he has cards to discard.

Q. What happens to a Level 1 thief who fails an attempt to steal? Does he die?
A. Nothing happens to him. You can't go below Level 1.

Q. Can a thief steal something while he is in combat?

A. No. He's preoccupied.

Q. Can a thief steal from someone else while THEY are in combat?
A. No. It's like trading; see above.

Q. Can a thief backstab himself?

A. No. It would be very munchkinly, but the card specifically says "another
player."

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Divine Intervention

Q. I have just drawn Divine Intervention face down. What happens now?
A. As the card says, no matter how it is drawn, all Clerics go up a level. Show
the card, and, if you are a cleric, discard the card in glee. Otherwise, discard the
card with disgust to show your contempt for those lucky bastards that are. . .

Q. What happens if a player gets Divine Intervention in his opening hand?

A. The player should show the card immediately. All players who can become
Clerics may chose to do so and go up a level. Once everyone is done, the card
is discarded.

Other Race and Class Questions

Q. A wizard must discard his hand to use his charm ability. Can he do this if he
has no cards?

Q. Can a wizard discard cards to get a bonus to Run Away after the die roll?
A. No!

Q. Can a wizard use his Charm ability if he's not involved in the combat?
A. No. The card says this is something he may do instead of fighting a monster.
It's not for interfering with others' fights.

Q. If I have Half-Breed and one other race card, is my other half human?
A. Yes.

Q. Can I use two Half-Breed cards to be more than two races, or two Super
Munchkin cards to have more than two classes?
A. No. Unless you want to make it a house rule, of course.

Q. Can I use two Half-Breed cards to be the same race twice, or two Super
Munchkin cards to be the same class twice, and get double benefits?
A. Gaaah. No. (My father was an elf, and my mother was . . . an elf!)

Q. When using Super Munchkin or Half-Breed, can you discard one of your
races or classes and replace it with another, or just not replace it?
A. You can turn from a half-breed dwarf-elf to a half-breed dwarf-human, or, if
you have the Halfling card, dwarf-halfling. This doesn't make you lose
Half-Breed. Super Munchkin follows a similar principle, but must always have

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two classes; if you can not supply a second class immediately, then Super
Munchkin must be discarded.

Q. Does the Fake Beard override your real race for monster reactions?
A. Yes. (We don't understand why this is a FAQ - it's what the card says.) If
you wear the Fake Beard, monsters will think you are a Dwarf and react
accordingly. Your real race does not matter, because they don't see it.

Curses

Q. If a Curse could apply to more than one item, who decides what it applies
to?
A. The victim. That's why the card says "Choose one small item to discard" and
not something like "Choose one small item for Fred to discard, nyah nyah."

Q. Malign Mirror says, "If you draw Remove Curse before your next fight, the
curse is lifted." But there is no Remove Curse card. Does it mean Wishing
Ring, which removes curses?
A. No! We're just toying with you! Ahh . . . Yes, okay, Wishing Ring can
remove the curse before the next combat.

Q. Well, do you actually have to USE the Wishing Ring, or just draw the
Wishing Ring card from the deck?
A. Use it.

Q. Can an Orc use his power to remove a curse later? What if he has a Chicken
on his Head when he becomes
A. No. If an Orc does not use his power at the moment he is hit with the Curse,

Potions and Notions

Q. Are cards like Yuppie Water, that don't say "Potion" on them but LOOK
like Potions, considered potions for rules purposes?
A. Yes. If it's a liquid in a container, it can be considered a potion.

Q. How about other items which are "usable once only"? Do they work like
potions?
A. All one-shot items (those which say "usable once only") may be played
directly from the hand unless the card says otherwise (and right now, none of
them do).

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Q. Can I use Friendship Potion on a monster if I fail to Run Away?

Combat Complexities

A. In a more rigorous game, we would have labeled all the swords as "weapon"
and all the armor as "armor" and so on. Try to use common sense, even if this
IS Munchkin. Spikes don't turn armor into a weapon. A shield is neither
weapon nor armor. Neither is a Really Impressive Title.

Q. What if a monster gets a Mate, or you get a Doppelganger, and then

somebody backstabs you or plays potions on one side or the other?
A. A Mate is an exact duplicate of the monster. A Doppleganger is an exact
duplicate of the player. Anything that changes the level of one, changes the
level of the other. (But if a monster is completely abolished - for instance,
Pollymorphed - its Mate is unaffected because it's a separate monster.)

Q. Some cards, like Magic Lamp, Illusion, and Pollymorph Potion, let you get
rid of ONE monster. If you get rid of a monster, does its mate (or, in the
expansion, its relatives) also leave? In other words, is Mate an enhancement
card like Ancient or fully separate like Wandering Monster additions?
A. A Mate is like a Wandering Monster. There are now two monsters, and you
have to get rid of them individually. If you play the get-rid-of-it card before
somebody plays Mate, though, there's no monster left for the Mate to join, so
Mate can't be played.

Q. When you are faced with two or more monsters, can you kill one and flee
the other?
A. No. If you have cards that let you abolish one entirely (like Pollymorph)
then you may do that, and fight the other one(s). (You will have to win that
fight before you can claim any treasure at all . . . you can't charm one monster,
grab its treasure, and then try to fight its mate.) But you can't fight one and flee
the other. They fight you together.

Q. Faced with multiple monsters, can a Wizard discard his whole hand to
Charm one, take its treasure, discard that new hand to Charm the next one, and
so on?
A. No. Faced with multiple hostile monsters, one does not get any of their
treasures until all are defeated. If you Pollymorph one, Charm one, and then
must Run Away from the last one, you get no treasure at all.

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Q. Okay, what about the situation where a Wandering Monster comes along
that would ignore or befriend one player in a fight, but not the other? For
instance, when the Wandering Monster is an Amazon and one player is female?
A. When one player helps another, the monsters do not fight the players
separately . . . so if one player is female, the wandering Amazon would give
that one player a Treasure and leave without fighting the other one. Likewise,
the Stoned Golem makes a bad Wandering Monster because the victims can
just ignore it.

Q. What if the Gazebo appears as a Wandering Monster after the player already
has a helper?
A. Okay, that's the exception. The helper has to back off and let the player
whose turn it is fight the Gazebo, and the other monster(s), alone.

Q. If somebody changes your race or class during combat (such as with a

curse), does that change your combat bonuses?
A. Yes. If you quit being an Elf, you can no longer get a bonus from Elf-only
items, and so on. You can never get the benefit of two races or two classes in
one combat unless you have a special card that allows it. Powers driven by
discards are an exception. If a Warrior had already discarded a card to get a +1
combat bonus, and then stopped being a Warrior, he would keep the bonus, but
wouldn't be able to discard any more
can be used to the player's advantage. Hee hee.

Q. If you use a one-shot Bonus during combat and someone tries to make it
disappear through Curse or Theft, do you get the bonus?
A. Theft doesn't work during combat. Use of a Curse could destroy an item as
you try to use it.

Q. If a first-level munchkin encounters the Plutonium Dragon, the Dragon

won't chase him. So does the munchkin get the treasure?
A. Nonononono. The munchkin cannot defeat the dragon, so he MUST run
away. The dragon won't chase him, so the munchkin lives. But he doesn't get
the treasure!

Q. If a card that affects your "next combat," like a sex change, is played on you
during a combat, does it affect THAT combat, or the next one you're in?
A. If the combat is still unresolved (and obviously it is, because people are still
playing cards on you for it), then that combat is the "next" one.

Q. Exactly when do you die, and how long do you stay dead?
A. You die when you get Bad Stuff that says you're dead. If you were fleeing

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from other monsters, you are excused from their Bad Stuff, because you're
dead. You STAY dead only until the next person's turn starts. Your new
character appears at that point and may join normally in the combat, though
you will get no new cards until someone gives you charity or your next turn
starts.

Q. Do I have to run away? What if I WANT to die?

A. Your character does not want to die. Your character will always TRY to run
away. If you want to die, then hope for a bad die roll.

Q. Can I play Go Up a Level cards on another player to make him go up to a

level such that a Monster that would previously ignore him will now chase
him?
A. This is not the original intent of Go Up a Level cards, but this is such a
munchkinly and vile idea that we like it too much to say no.

Q. Does the "2.6 seconds rule" apply to defeating a monster without killing it,
or just to killing it?
A. Any sort of defeat. If you defeat it without killing it, other players still have
about 2.6 seconds to play an applicable card to frustrate you.

Et Cetera

Q. The Hireling lets you carry and use an extra Big item. Does he allow you to
have more than two Hands worth of weapons?
A. Nope. He can carry something for you but not use it for you. This leads to
the silly result that if he carries your armor, it still protects you. We like this . . .

Q. Are the Ghoulfiends supposed to be undead?

A. No, they're like that all the time.

Q. The Ghoulfiends card says only your level counts in the fight, not your
bonuses or items. Can you still use an item to avoid fighting entirely - say, the
Magic Lamp?
A. Yes.

Q. Is the initial sex of a character the same as the sex of the player, or can it be
chosen?
A. The intent is that it be the same as that of the player. The designer has no
objection to being overridden by house rules, though. And note that a
Munchkin T-shirt will change your sex for game purposes.

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Q. King Tut and the Wight Brothers say "Characters of higher levels [than 3]
lose 2 levels, even if they escape.
you defeat those monsters?
A. No. But if you cannot defeat them, then you must try to run away, and you'll
lose the 2 levels even if you do escape. If they catch you, of course, they
reduce you to Level 1.

Q. Can you sell items that total less than 1,000 gold, just to get them out of
circulation?
A. No. If the items aren't worth a total of at least 1,000 gold, you can't sell
them.

Q. If you have the Cheat card on one item, can you move it to another one?
A. No. Once you perform the initial cheat, the card cannot be moved to another
item. So if something happens to make the Cheated item legal for you . . . too
bad. You can't transfer your Cheat to something else.

Q. Can I use the Cheat card to take an item from another player, or use it to
search through the discard pile to take an item from it?
A. No and no. . . The Cheat card allows you to carry (i.e., have in play) and use
an item you normally couldn't due to class/race/slot restrictions. In other words,
a second piece of Headgear, a second Big item (for non-Dwarves), a item that
requires a Hand or two when your other two are full, or the Bow With Ribbons
for non-Elves. You have to get the Item some legal way, not by using the Cheat
card to take it.

Q. Why doesn't an Orc get some kind of bonus for dealing with the "3,872
Orcs" monster card?
A. Rather than put a rule on a race card that refers to a single monster card, we
decided that the monster orcs are just as hostile to a single PC orc as they are to
any other PC.

Q. What does the Bad Stuff for the Plutonium Dragon mean? Did I just die
because I failed to run away?
A. Even though the text isn't specific, Death is most likely to occur after being
roasted and eaten, so yes, you did just die. . .

Q. The Loaded Die says to change the roll to any number I choose. Could I
pick 1,000,000 and make the Level 1 Eep ridiculously impossible to beat, or
make my halfling succeed in running away even if he's facing a Monster with a
Mate and has a chicken on his head?
A. Well, we meant any number on a d6, you outmunchkined us, you ROCK,

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that abuse was completely in the spirit of the game and we love it . . . now pick
a number between 1 and 6.

Q. The rules say that cards in play must be traded or discarded. When can I
discard them?
A. This depends on the type of card. Race and Class cards can be discarded at
any time. This includes Half Breed and Super Munchkin as well. Item cards,
however, can only be discarded in the following ways:

As part of a sale (but see above for the rule on a minimum for selling
Items)
To power a special ability of a Class/Race or another card
To fulfill the requirements of Bad Stuff or a Curse!/Trap!
The Item is Big, you MUST get rid of it (because your hireling died or
you are no longer a Dwarf) and there is no one who can take it

And The Grand Champion Munchkinly Question . . .

Q. Can a cleric use Hoard over and over by discarding it before he starts
drawing his three cards, and drawing it again, and discarding it and drawing
three more, and so on?
A. No. Discard it AFTER the three cards are drawn. GREAT try, though!

Star Munchkin
Q. Do Mutants have to choose between having three hands and two heads?
A. No - they can go back and forth between those abilities, but they can't use
them both at once.

Q. What, exactly, does the Cyborg's "Level 2" ability mean?

A. If you start the game as a Cyborg, you start out at Level 2. If you are at
Level 1 and become a Cyborg, you jump to Level 2. A Cyborg character can
never go below Level 2, in the same way that normal characters can't go below
Level 1. However, if you stop being a Cyborg, you do not lose a level, and if
you become a Cyborg when you are already Level 2 or higher, there is no
effect.

Q. I'm not a Gadgeteer. What are my limitations on Complex items?

A. You can carry as many as you have hands for, but you can only use one at a
time. The others should be turned sideways, like any other item that you can't
use (for instance, something for a Race other than yours).

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Q. Does a Psychic still get his +2 "fighting alone" combat bonus if he has a
Sidekick?
A. Yes. Sidekicks are okay. A Doppleganger is OK. And if another player
throws a grenade or something to hurt the monster and assist you, you don't
lose your bonus. It's only when another player joins the combat that you lose
your bonus.

Q. How does the Feline's curiosity work?

A. If the Feline opens the door and DOESN'T find a monster, the Feline has 3
choices: look for trouble, loot the room or open a second door. If the Feline
opens a second door, treat this like opening a door at the start of a normal turn
for a non-Feline character. I.e., if there isn't a monster behind the second door,
the Feline may look for trouble or loot the room.

Q. Are there any limits on when you can remove individual -aser cards? In
particular, if you have a great big -aser weapon, can someone Antimatter the
whole thing?
A. No, you can drop individual cards any time you need to. And in particular,
Antimatter says "one item." The rules say that each card in the -aser weapon is
a separate item.

Q. Will dying get rid of an Antimatter item?

A. No. The card says "nothing else will get rid of it," and it means it. The card
overrules the normal rules for death. You keep this card through death, and it is
with you when your new character appears!

Q. What happens if the Foof Gun gets hit by Antimatter? Does it always

A. Antimatter only reverses the bonus and makes it impossible to drop the item
and affects no other things about it. So, an antimattered Foof Gun is still
optional to use. If you use it, the penalty is -6. If you kill the monster anyway,
the monster is obliterated, you gain no Level for killing it, but you do get its
Treasure.

Q. If there are two players in combat, and Great Cthulhu catches them both, do
the survivors get two levels?
A. No. Though if Great Cthulhu had a clone or mate, and each one caught one
munchkin, the survivors would each go up two levels.

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